The 20th edition of the Moscow International Film Festival (19-29 July) was held in the framework of the capital's 850th anniversary celebrations.

Thanks to intense efforts made by festival organisers and local authorities, the event managed to catch the attention of the public.

For the first time in years, festival venues like the refurbished Rossiya and Udarnik were almost sold out in the evenings - unlike other theatres, where the average number of admissions per fest screening remained just south of 100.

Robert De Niro, Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren - who all received one of the St George Honorary Awards - as well as Jacqueline Bisset, Geoffrey Rush, Irwin Kershner, Phillip Noyce and Arthur Hiller were heading the list of 485 guests and 3,215 journalists from 44 countries. Sidebars showing films made in the CIS and young cinema allowed them to sample the new film output of all the former Soviet Republics. The international film market was attended by 41 companies from 19 countries, including MTV Hungary and Germany's Cine International.

Besides a retrospective of Andrei Konchalovsky's work, featuring the European premiere of his Odysseus, one of the highlights of the event was the meeting between MPAA chief Jack Valenti, festival president Sergei Soloviev and prime minister Victor Chernomyrdin. On the agenda was the joint Russian-US action plan against video piracy.

The international jury handed out its awards to the following: Jerry Zaks' Marvin's Room (Best Film), Janos Szasz's The Witman Boys (Best Director), Alexander Sokurov's Mother and Son (Special Jury Award), Til Schweiger (Best Actor, Knockin' on Heaven's Door) and Izabel Ordaz (Best Actress, Chevrolet).

Although organisers stressed that the festival should become an annual event (so far it has been held biannually), dates for the next edition could not be disclosed.
Yevgeniya Tirdatova